CBE: Egypt Paid $11.9 Billion in Foreign Debt within 6 Months

Egypt paid foreign debt installments, and interest rate (cost of debt) of about $11.9 billion during the period from June/December, according to data issued by the Central Bank of Egypt.

The balance of Egypt's external debt, according to recent data issued by the CBE, amounted to about $162.9 billion until the end of December 2022. 

The external debt increased by about $7.2 billion, with a growth rate of 4.6% compared to the end of June 2022.

Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in previous press statements that Egypt is committed to paying financial obligations on time and was never late, pointing to the significant increase in Egyptian exports of natural gas in addition to the increase in non-oil exports.

CBE paid about $7.154 billion by the end of Q2 2022/23, representing installments and interests for outstanding debts.

The Central Bank's statistical bulletin revealed that the debt burden service was divided into paid installments of $5.843 billion, and paid interest of $1.311 billion.

With regard to the first half of 2022/23 (July to December 2022), the value of paying interest and installments amounted to $11.9 billion, divided into $4.784 billion during the first quarter and $7.154 billion during the second quarter.

The premiums paid during the last fiscal year amounted to about $21.7 billion, and the paid interest amounted to about $4.570 billion.

The bulletin indicated that the ratio of the external debt balance to the GDP amounted to about 35.5% by the end of December 2022.

In a different context, the Central Bank said that the total deposits of customers in banks other than the Central Bank rose to record EGP 9.138 trillion at the end of February 2023, compared to EGP 9.021 trillion at the end of last January, an increase of EGP 116.9 billion.

In the latest monthly statistical bulletin, the Central Bank revealed that deposits were divided into government deposits at a value of EGP 2.065 trillion and non-governmental deposits at a value of EGP 7.072 trillion at the end of February.

Government deposits were divided into deposits in local currency, recording EGP 1.725 trillion, and deposits in foreign currencies, recording EGP 340.036 billion at the end of last February.